Let’s face it—there are days when everything just falls apart. You’re running on less than two hours of sleep, forgot to stock up on necessities (coffee included!), your workload just keeps piling up, and have back to back meetings. On top of that, your house is a mess and you just have neither the will nor the energy to pick up the dirty laundry piling up behind your home office chair.
For days like this, your best chances at hiding the telltale signs of weeks of letting yourself go is a good virtual background. Thanks to technology (and efforts from individuals and companies who put a lot of time and effort into making us look a little more put together—virtually, at least), there is no more reason for you to hide from your colleagues or clients whenever you need to go on a conference call.
Now, the only problem is, what background do you use? While most conferencing apps like MS Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet provide a number of pre-installed options, sometimes we just want something that’s more to our liking.
Whether you’re putting up a virtual background for practical purposes or to make your conference less mundane, we’ve put together a list of places on the web where you can source stunning images for free. So go ahead and browse. We hope you find something you can use on your next meeting.
Note: For best results, use an image with 1,280 x 720 or 1,920 x 1,080 pixels if your camera is set to 16:9 ratio. If you fancy using a video, you’re best off with an MP4 or MOV video file with a minimum resolution of 480 x 360 pixels (360p) and a maximum resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (1080p).
Your Favorite TV Apartments
On the onset of the pandemic, the popular web-based interior design service company, Modsy, launched virtual backgrounds of apartments from some of everyone’s most well-loved series, including Gilmore Girls, Friends, Seinfeld, and Sex and the City. Needless to say, these backgrounds are all reminiscent, fun, and stylish, and can be a great ice breaker. You can check them all out here.
Scenes from Pixar Films
From the lush forest in the movie Brave, the land of the dead in Coco, the iconic kitchen in Ratatouille, and Andy’s room in Toy Story, Disney and Pixar give everyone the chance to insert themselves in some of the two company’s most unforgettable films with their virtual backgrounds that you can easily access here.
Unforgettable Places from Star Wars
One of the reasons why Star Wars is so famous is because of its dedication to details. Literally, the series of blockbuster movies created an entirely new universe filled with breathtaking views and otherwise unimaginable creatures. If you fancy taking your meeting from a galaxy far far away, you may do so by visiting this link.
Minimalist Spaces
Sometimes all you need is a clean and simple background to hide all the clutter without necessarily distracting everyone. Well, Design Milk has just the thing for you. Minimalist spaces that are nothing short of breathtaking, but also very calming. Check out all the options here.
Starbucks
The world’s biggest cafe chain understands that they have been an important part of the lives of millions of workers and freelancers who find themselves working in their cafes; so they recently came up with a series of virtual backgrounds of some of their most-visited branches. They even give you the option to either stay indoors or outdoor. Visit your favorite Starbucks branch (virtually!) here.
